Noah raced outside, pushing his way through scrambling goblins, Lika hot on his heels. As he exited the cool, pleasant-smelling card building into the sweltering, bug-infested stink of the outside, he was almost swept away by the waves of goblins freaking out around him. Only his comparative size kept him from getting pushed, and he had to grab Lika and fish her from the crowd to keep her from being stampeded.

“Thanks,” she said, grimacing.

“Over here!” Trevor called as Emily followed them out.

Noah’s team had set up a tiny strong point on the side of the building, and were using their guns as clubs to keep the goblins away.

Noah started to make his way over to his teammates, carrying Lika as he did. But the yells around him turned to screams, and Noah saw that goblins were hitting the ground, a few pointing up as they screamed.

Noah glanced up, then, horrified, he dropped Lika and curled his body around her as arrows fell from the sky, slamming into wood and flesh around him.

Screams rose around him, but Noah felt no pain and unwrapped himself from around Lika.

Lika was staring at him wide-eyed. “You saved—”

“Summon your cards!” Noah screamed as he stood. He hit his own chest and simultaneously brought out RED’s side deck.

Lika stood, her contest card still floating in front of her. She and Emily both touched their chests and brought forth their decks.

Noah glanced at his own. He had his Goliath Scrap Bot, which he didn’t have the power to summon, his tier-two Reclaimer Golem, and his Post-Apocalyptic Cyborg mantle card.

That’s a solid opening draw. Noah touched the Post-Apocalyptic Cyborg, which dissolved into gray light with a metallic glint. The light flowed around him and reformed into the patch-work cyber armor.

Noah gained three to each of his stats except Magical Attack, as well as a separate five-strength magical attack, a lightning bolt.

But mostly, he wanted to make sure he did okay against any arrows. He rushed out past some houses, staring at the enemies.

He saw a total of about five hundred elves, almost as many elf warriors as there were goblin civilians in the town. Close to four hundred of them were on the shores, firing arrows into the town.

But nearly a hundred were on horses, and even as Noah watched, one held a trumpet to his lips and blew.

The horses cantered out into the shallow water of the bog. The riders carried swords open in their hands, and wore light armor. But they seemed in no hurry to reach the goblins, and Noah could see them laughing among themselves.

They’re letting the archers do the work, and they expect absolutely no opposition. Noah briefly thought about what would happen if the elves took the tiny town with horses and steel weaponry. Nothing will be able to stop the elves if they get here en masse, even if they’re barely taking this seriously. The goblin deckbearers will die, and the rest will be enslaved.

“Trevor, Matt, get everyone to the edge over here!”

“What about the arrows?” Trevor yelled back.

“We have to deal with it!” Noah yelled, hesitating. People are going to die on your orders, Noah.

Noah just fervently hoped it would be less than without his orders.

His team, now sixteen strong, ran up and took a knee at the edge of the platform closest to the elves, holding their guns out.

Most of the elves laughed and pointed, but some commander must have figured that no matter how silly Noah and his men looked with their odd clubs, they weren’t doing this for no reason. Or perhaps some elves had survived the encounters they’d had with the Remnants of Emporia and reported back. Either way, an officer stood up and swept his arm down, toward Noah.

The horses started doing their best to charge through the water.

We’ve got about three magazines per gun, a bit more for the AR-15s, and that’s it, Noah thought. He wasn’t sure if it would be enough, but perhaps if he gave the goblins time to organize…

“Fire on my orders. Keep it low—horse down, man down,” Noah said. “And, unless we’re in a really bad way, conserve ammo. We still have a bunch more to fight.”

One of his men screamed as an arrow slammed into his chest, angled down, and dropped back. Blood bubbled from his mouth as he cried out.

It’s now or the arrows will pick us apart. “Fire! Make every bullet count, we have another fight after this one!”

The six guys with AR-15s opened up, slowly firing in semi-auto mode. Horses and elves screamed in agony, blood spewed across the bog lake, and horses and men fell—in some cases, elves becoming trapped beneath their horses, hands scrabbling above the water as the rest of them was pinned to the lakebed, drowning. Independent fire from his remaining men, most using pistols, dropped many more.

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But the elves had started close, and there wasn’t quite enough time.

Additionally, another wave of arrows fell across Noah’s men. Noah cussed as one slashed him across the outside of his forearm, a one-damage hit, but another of his men simply dropped—pure freak chance had put the arrow in his eye. Another screamed and choked, spewing blood, as one slammed down onto the crux between shoulder and neck.

Then an eel exploded from the bog water at Noah’s feet before they could fell the last of the cavalry. It flopped onto the rickety deck they were on. Noah briefly saw the outline of a card before electricity shot across him and his team, hitting almost everyone. The damage was minimal, but most of his team froze in shock for a critical few seconds.

The elves yelled in joy as they charged. But Lika hadn’t been shocked. She stood, a vial in her hand. “Eat explosion, dick bags!”

She hurled the vial, which hit a knight and exploded. Horses surged away from the sound and three elves went down.

Noah stood, forgetting the arrows, and dropped two more with his Glock as they came in.

At the same time, he summoned his Reclaimer Golem just behind him. It immediately consumed a Scrap Token, healing Noah for six. But he felt it empowering him as well, giving him an additional five temporary and maximum Health and an additional defense, since Noah’s mantle and perks made him both Golem and subtype Scavenger temporarily.

Only ten elves made it to their line, but the slaughter was immediate. Noah saw two of his men go down in a welter of blood as the elves hit, and a horse trampled Lika, whose scream cut off as a blow from a hoof caught her head and hurled her to the ground.

Then Noah had his own problems. A sword slashed down, and he caught it on the armor of his arm. Noah hissed in pain as the sword slashed through the metal of his mantle’s bracer and left a huge gash in him. He was driven to his knees by the blow. This armor isn’t quite as effective as it looks.

Noah ducked a slash from the other side and shot up into the belly of the first elf’s horse, which reared, screaming, and fell backward into the bog lake. Noah turned and shot the rider on his other side.

Two Rattletail Recluses appeared and leapt on elves, but at the same time, an Elven Wolf Ranger appeared in the midst of the fight and released an arrow, killing Matt, who was already bleeding profusely from a slash on his chest, with a second hit to the stomach.

As Matt fell sideways onto the dock, Emily let out a long, drawn-out scream of “No!” and fired her own gun into his killer.

The arrows had stopped falling where Noah was, and he surged back to his feet and fired around him, switching magazines as fast as he could. It was mere seconds before he clicked on empty on his last magazine, but by that time, hideous damage had been done. He stood, surrounded by dead elves and dead friends.

The last three elves turned, attempting a retreat back across the lake. Emily stood, grabbed an AR-15, and shot them in the back, a couple bullets fired at each.

Not one of the elves that had stepped into the lake made it back to their lines.

But Noah barely noticed, staring around at the carnage near him. Most of Noah’s men had been dropped. James Washington was down, dead, and his cards had been scattered. Matt was gone.

Lika was on the ground, and at first glance appeared dead. She was unmoving and had a massive bleeding slash across her forehead. But no cards had appeared. Not yet.

Noah rushed over, scrabbling at her vest potions. He couldn’t read the labels, but he knew what they looked like by now. Just avoid the honey.

Four healing potions were left. Noah grabbed one, tilted Lika’s head back, and poured it down her throat.

Without waiting, Noah screamed, “Trevor, come get two of these and give it to anyone not completely gone! They’ll save someone from anything short of brain death!”

Trevor ran over as another wave of arrows fell across them. Someone cussed, but no one seemed to die in that round.

Lika coughed and started to sit, then fell back with a groan.

“Get the men and get them into doorways, under cover,” Noah yelled, hooking Lika under her underarms and pulling her back in a rapid crouch-walk. “Drag any wounded! We’ve repelled their cavalry, and now it’s a ranged battle of attrition!”

Noah watched for just a moment. Emily and Trevor grabbed one, dragging him back with Noah. Three more made it, two hale men dragging another into a separate doorway.

Eight men, myself included, of the twenty that started out, Noah thought with horror, shocked almost beyond rational ability to deal with the situation. Arrows still fell, and the few goblins still out were screaming.

Noah briefly glanced up at the ring circling the new world they were on. White-hot rage flashed through him at what was happening to his people. Most of Emporia had died, and now, more than half those that followed him were dead.

Fuck you, gods. Fuck you very much. And fuck this world you made.

Lika summoned her Novice Goblin Witch Doctor, who created two more potions. She took one and passed the other to Noah, who took it, his hand trembling with rage.

“Where’s RED?” she asked, staring out the door at the elves. About half of them had started an extremely slow advance across the river.

Her eyes drifted downward, and Noah followed her gaze. One of her goblin allies, Kak, was dead, an arrow sticking from his back.

A silent tear dropped from her eye, and she angrily swiped her hand across her face.

Noah didn’t know what had happened to RED. He swiped his deck while he checked his notifications. RED had been slain a while ago, during the melee.

On the other hand, Noah was now level ten, and he guessed that Lika, Emily, and Trevor had leveled as well.

“It’s lost, isn’t it?” Lika asked, staring at Kak’s corpse. “We’ve lost. My people are going to die or be enslaved, aren’t they?”

Noah stared out at the elves as they advanced. His mind was racing, trying to find a solution.

Lika finally turned her eyes from Kak, staring out at the advancing elves. “We should run, Noah. We don’t want to be one of those caught.”

“I don’t want to abandon your people,” Noah muttered, although he had no idea how to reverse the situation. If I’d had one more day to set up, I could have made this work!

Noah desperately grabbed one of the AR-15s and stared through the scope at the enemy, both the ones advancing on him and the ones coordinating from the back. They were better equipped, larger, healthier, and better trained than the goblins.

Elves in the back showed that they even still had reserves. Noah saw one elf with silver hair and sumptuous silken robes over a breastplate, obviously coordinating, in the very far back, just inside the treeline.

Five cards near him—four in front, and one circling.

A sudden idea, brilliant in its simplicity, hit Noah.

“Wait!” Noah said, standing up and banging his head on the low ceiling of the goblin building they were taking cover in. He winced but grabbed Lika by her shoulders, staring intensely into her widening eyes.

“I might have a solution, but you’re not going to like it…”